Desert Studies Initiative

The Center for Conservation Biology's Desert Studies Initiative is based at U.C. Riverside's Palm Desert Graduate Center . Research here has focused on modeling spatial and temporal patterns and dynamics of populations, natural communities and landscapes of North American Deserts. These studies continue to amass rich, multi-year data sets covering soil, vegetation, invertebrate, reptile, mammal and bird community associations, species richness and abundance. International collaborations have included comparisons with similar data sets collected by research teams based in the Chihuahuan Desert in the Chihuahua and Coahuila states of Mexico . The research here at the CCB's “Desert Outpost” has both explicit and implicit connections to supporting effective science-based conservation of the biodiversity of our region's deserts. These efforts include the development of effective means of risk assessment for conserving and managing fragmented ecological units that comprise conservation plans.

Located in the Southern California’s Coachella Valley, just one hour east of the UCR main campus, the Desert Studies Initiative focuses its research on this region’s ongoing effort to balance suburban growth and the protection of biodiversity. This valley is at a unique point of contact of the Sonoran and Mojave Desert biogeographic regions, and the northern extension of the Peninsular Mountain range that extends south through Baja California. It is also among the fastest developing areas in the nation. Our goal is to be a scientific resource for land managers, local jurisdictions and schools; providing them, as well as similarly developing regions, objective analyses from which to maintain that important balance.

Coachella Valley MSHCP Monitoring Framework
Principal Investigator: Michael F. Allen
Funded by: Coachella Valley Association of Governments

CDFG Contract for surveys in Sierra Nevada and Riverside County
Principal Investigator: John Rotenberry
Funded by: California Department of Fish and Game

Barrows, C. W. 2000. Tenebrionid species richness and distribution in the Coachella Valley sand dunes (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). Southwestern Naturalist 45(3): 306-312.

Barrows, C. 2004. Indicator species and time series images reveal progress of dune habitat restoration. Ecological Restoration 22(1): 56.

Barrows, C. W. 2006. Population dynamics of a threatened dune lizard. Southwestern Naturalist 51:514-523.

Barrows, C. W. and M. F. Allen. 2007. Community complexity: stratifying monitoring schemes within a desert sand dune landscape. Journal of Arid Environments 69:315-330.

Barrows, C. W. and M. F. Allen. 2007. Biological monitoring and bridging the gap between land management and science. Natural Areas Journal 27:194-197.

Barrows, C. W. and M. F. Allen. 2007. Persistence and local extinctions of an endangered lizard on isolated habitat patches. Endangered Species Research 3:61-68.

Barrows, C. W., M. F. Allen and J. T. Rotenberry. 2006. Boundary processes between a desert sand dune community and an encroaching suburban landscape. Biological Conservation 131:486-494.

Barrows, C. W., M. B. Swartz, W. L. Hodges, M. F. Allen, J. T. Rotenberry, B. Li, T. A. Scott and X. Chen. 2005. A framework for monitoring multiple species conservation plans. Journal of Wildlife Management 69:1333-1345.

Barrows, C. W. 2007. Balancing economic and ecological sustainability in the Coachella Valley. Desert Report. California Desert Protection League, Inc. June 15, 2007 :4-5.

Barrows, C. W. and M. F. Allen. In press . Conservation implications of fragmentation in deserts. In The Mojave Desert : ecosystem processes and sustainability, R. H. Webb, L. F. Fenstermaker, J. S. Heaton, D. L. Hughson, E. V. McDonanld, and D. M. Miller, eds. University of Nevada Press.

Barrows, C. W. and M. Fisher. 2009. Coachella Fringe-toed lizard. In Jones, Lawrence L. C., and Robert E. Lovich, eds. In press.  Lizards of the American Southwest: A Photographic Field Guide.  Rio Nuevo Publishers, Tucson , Arizona .

Chen, X., C. W. Barrows and B. Li. 2006. Is the Coachella Valley Fringe-toed Lizard ( Uma inornata ) on the Edge of Extinction at Thousand Palms Preserve? Southwestern Naturalist 51: 28-34.

Chen, X., C. W. Barrows and B. Li. 2006. Phase coupling and spatial synchrony of subpopulations of an endangered dune lizard. Landscape Ecology 21:1185-1193.

García-De la Peña, C., G. Castañeda, and C. Barrows. 2007 Infestation by chigger mites in two species of lizards from a dune habitat in northern Mexico . Texas Journal of Science 59:23-32.

Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan Monitoring Program: 2002-2005 Progress Report @ eScholarship Repository